You have known him longer than almost anyone. You know the haircut from 2009, the holiday with the broken caravan and the thing he will never live down. Put it in a book.
Brothers are notoriously difficult to buy for. Ask what he wants and he says "nothing, honestly", then buys whatever he wanted the week before his birthday. The safe options (a gift card, a bottle, a jumper) all say the same thing: I ran out of ideas.
A Novellum book says the opposite. Write a few lines about him: his job, his football team, the trip you took together, the family story everyone still teases him about. Pick up to two genres (adventure and comedy is a favourite for siblings; a thriller works if he is the one who watches every heist film) and we write a whole novel with your brother as the hero.
It costs from $2.99 and arrives by email on the day you pick, with your message. Add the narrated audiobook for the long drive, or print the PDF if you want something to hand over at the pub.
This is how one of our books begins. The brief: Callum Fairlie, 34, an electrician in Glasgow who has never once been on time, sets off with his older sister Fiona to return their late grandad's wartime medal to a family in a village in Normandy, in his van with a broken heater and a sat nav that only speaks French (adventure and comedy). The hero is invented.
By the time Callum Fairlie noticed he was late he was already three minutes past being on time. He stood in his tiny kitchen, socks damp from a rain that had been falling all night, and considered the cup of tea he had not poured. The kettle hissed like a small argument. Outside, his van sat in the street with its engine idling as if it, too, understood timetables and had given up on them. Inside, the living room clock ticked at its usual, unsympathetic pace and gifted him the exact moment he had predicted he would miss.
Callum was thirty four, an electrician, and a professional at arriving after a thing had started. His hair was perpetually somewhere between "I cut it myself last week" and "I will get round to it next month." He wore a coat that had seen better winters and a grin that suggested he knew the punchline but had not yet decided whether to tell it. Being late was less a habit and more a lifestyle choice. He liked to think it made entrances dramatic. Mostly it made him apologise.
A real opening Novellum wrote for an example brief, quoted unedited. Your book starts from your brief, and you read its page one free before you pay.
| Short novel, about 30,000 words | $2.99 |
| Short novel with its narrated audiobook | $7.99 |
| Medium novel, about 60,000 words | $4.99 |
| Full novel, about 95,000 words | $6.99 |
| Bundle: three Medium books, one now and two codes to give later | $13.99 |
Prices in US dollars, the same everywhere. You pay only after you have read page one.
Yes. Many people write themselves in as the sensible sibling, the sidekick or the one who caused all the trouble. Tell us in the brief.
Either. The book is written for adult readers. For a brother under 18, choose a gentle genre and buy it as a parent or guardian.
Gift books are kept clean by default. If you want more edge, say so in the brief, and you read page one free before you pay.
Yes. Pick any date up to a year ahead. Cards go out at 13:00 UTC, which is 1pm in the UK.
The Short is about 30,000 words, an afternoon or two. The Full is about 95,000 words, the length of a typical paperback.
Yes. It is written by AI for one reader and says so on its final page.
Questions? Write to us. Novellum books are written by AI, for one reader only.